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  • From: Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] mediterranean orchards, terracing and fire protection
  • Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 19:44:01 -0500

Controlled burns carried out at seasons when soil and air are moist, and at times when the wind is calm, *may* be useful to reduce moderate fuel loads, and reduce risks in a subsequent dry hot spell.

Deep-rooted plants which stay green in dry summer weather may be helpful in some cases.

I've noticed that dormant prairie grasses will burn furiously, much more so than grasses native to cool and moist areas, although the latter are shorter. Prairie grasses will however stay green in summer. Whether they will resist burning thatch in a dry hot summer I can't say.

In North America apparently bur oaks are fire resistant when older and were doubtless selected partly by fire as they are common on the edge of prairie. Black oaks are not so resistant but are good at resprouting from their roots, so are characteristic of fire-maintained savannas. Perhaps cork oaks have thick bark for a reason.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada


Dieter Brand wrote:
Paul,
You are completely right: The way in which a fire will develop
is largely determined by fuel load, wind (direction, force) and topography of the land. In general, a fire will burn from the bottom to the top because of the air flow generated by the fire. Which means that you are more at risk on top of a hill than at
it’s bottom. On the other hand, a strong wind blowing through a valley may well drive the fire through the bottom of the valley where it finds more fuel load, since a valley usually has more vegetation than the drier hill tops. Sometimes it is very surprising how a fire will develop. Depending on the topography, pockets
of dry vegetations are sometimes left standing, while all else around it is burned down. It obviously depends very much on the force with which a fire enters your property, if a strong wind is blowing from a large fuel load onto your property, than all bets are off.
I’m not sure community building will work here. Most of the land around here is managed by large pulp companies. They have plans of their own. The few remaining homesteaders
are inveterate individualists who prefer to muddle through on their own. One point is important though: In places like this,
(where trust in the police and the judicial system is not well
developed), people will sometimes resort to arson to take revenge on somebody they feel has done them injury. Hence, it is important to cultivate good relations all around, especially
if one comes from another region or country.
Adding to what Vital has said, here is a partial list of fire retardant
plants given by Heidi Gildemeister in her Mediterranean Gardening
(ISBN of the English edition: 84-273-0749-7). She writes:
“Plants cannot stop fire, but hazards are reduced by replacing combustible
vegetation (cypress, eucalyptus, juniper, pine) by plants with lowest fuel
content. Water-retaining succulents have the greatest potential.”
Fire retardant plants: Callistemon, Ceratonia, Cistus, Myoporum laetum,
Rhamnus alaternus, Rhus integrifolia, Campsis radicans, Solanum
jasminoides, Achillea tomentosa, Agave, Aloe, Arctotheca calendula,
Artemisia, Convolvulus cneorum, Gazania, Osteospermum, Pelargonium
peltatum, Senecio cineraria, Yucca.
Just one more comment of my own: mulching around fruit trees can be dangerous. We lost most of our citrus trees because I had mulched
under the trees with dry leaves prior to the fire. The only ones to survive
were a few bitter orange trees that I hadn’t bothered to mulch. The flames from the mulch weren’t that high and the trees didn’t actually burn; however, since most fruit trees only have a thin bark that doesn’t provide any protection against fire, the heat from the burning mulch was enough to hurt the cambium layer which caused the trees to die. Now, I’m experimenting with large stones placed around the stem so that the mulch doesn’t come near the stem.

Dieter Brand
Portugal

Paul Cereghino <paul.cereghino@comcast.net> wrote:
Thank you Dieter, your practical experience is much better than my book learning. Fire ecology predates capitalism, and is something to take very seriously (though building soil moisture is a good thing). It might be useful to find people who understand fire behavior in your landscape first hand who can talk about dominant wind direction during fire season, likely sources of fire near your property and how fire might move on your land based on landform and aspect. While your strategy is based on your parcel, fire operates at a landscape scale. Alignment of grazed pasture, or roads can also serve as fire breaks.

In our Washington state, USA dry-side forest I have spent time with folks for whom fire preparation has been a source of positive community building. We have even had some government grant opportunities for communities working toward defensible settlements -- there might be an opportunity to get some subsidy for a well developed plan. To live in fire country is definately a trick of biologically 'burning' your fuel load before you set your self up for a catastrophic burn.

Another thought would be to talk with climate specialists to better understand the future. 600-800 years ago during the midieval climate optimum, our rainforest region had landscape scale 'stand-replacing' fires that whipped accross the landscape consuming the 'fuel' accumulated in more moderate centuries... only indigenous non-capitalists as witnesses... something else to look forward to in global climate change.

Paul Cereghino
Olympia, WA


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